Congress defeat in Tehri by-poll seen as rejectiuon of reforms

Loudspeakers were blaring all over Tehri district, especially in the Uttarakhand capital Dehradun and adjoining regions, celebrating the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate over the Congress in Thursday's by-election, counting for which was completed today.

The ruling party in the state and UPA coalition leader of the union government lost the Lok Sabha seat recently vacated by chief minister Vijay Bahuguna as he was made Uttarakhand chief minister. But the move to field Bahuguna's son Saket backfired, as he lost to the BJP candidate Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah by more than 18,000 votes.

The election saw a poor turnout of around 45 per cent from disappointed voters who expect more progress in the still largely backward state.

Analysts see the Tehri by-election as not only the first real test of chief minister Vijay Bahuguna's image, but also of the UPA government's new economic measures such as foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail and a hike in diesel prices as well as a cap on subsidised cooking gas cylinders.

Observers seeing the national picture believe that issues like corruption, price rise and disputed economic liberalisation hit the Congress hard. But the ruling party also paid the price for putting up the son of an already controversial chief minister as its candidate.

The gamble of promoting Vijay Bahuguna, previously MP from Tehri, to chief ministership of Uttarakhand compelled the by-election which his son lost.